Scotland Today
| Scotland Today | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Regional News |
| Created by |
Scottish Television (now branded STV) |
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Production | |
| Running time | Main bulletin: 30 minutes Short bulletins: Durations vary |
| Production company(s) |
Scottish Television (now branded STV) |
| Release | |
| Original release | 11 September 1972 – 22 March 2009 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
STV News at Six, North Tonight, The Five Thirty Show, Politics Now, The Real MacKay |
Scotland Today was a Scottish regional news programme covering Central Scotland, produced by STV Central (formerly Scottish Television). Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme was actually limited to stories around STV's Central Belt franchise. North Tonight covered STV's North Scotland region (from North Fife upwards), until both programmes were renamed as STV News at Six in March 2009.
Based in Glasgow, the programme began on 11 September 1972 in a style very similar to its BBC counterpart Reporting Scotland and co-anchored by John Toye and Bill Kerr Elliot. At first, the programme was double headed, but within a year, Toye became its solo presenter and went on to present Scotland Today for 12 years. During the first six years, it was only on air for ten months of the year, taking a regular summer break and having its timeslot filled by regional magazine programmes including Isabel on... and Watch This Space. The programme's first editor was Russell Galbraith, then head of news for Scottish Television – he remained in the role until 1982.
During the early 1980s, the programme experimented with studio presentation from both Glasgow and Edinburgh, featuring news round-ups from the West and the East of the region, albeit broadcast across Central Scotland. It was also one of the first regional news programmes to feature signed headlines for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Following John Toye's departure, a major overhaul of Scotland Today saw the programme relaunched as a feature-led magazine programme on Monday 8 October 1984. New co-presenters Sheena McDonald and Haig Gordon presented on sofas as opposed to desks, with the main regional news of the day confined to short bulletins before and after the programme, co-presented from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The critics were harsh about the new format – one such newspaper critic described it as The Goon Show - it's Tom and Jerry time but there's not much to laugh at. The Independent Broadcasting Authority also criticised the changes to the programme, and in July 1986, the station's head of news David Scott announced Scotland Today would revert to a harder news format the following Autumn, promising in a newspaper: you won't see pot plants, sofas or sculptures - these are nothing but distractions. The new look programme, launched on Monday 20 October 1986, saw Haig Gordon replaced by former reporter Malcolm Wilson, while feature elements were moved to a new lunchtime programme, Live at One Thirty, which began a fortnight earlier.
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